Fun Free Feed Tools For Both The Publisher And The Reader

As you've probably been reading, there are basically three problems many webmasters have with web feeds (that is, among those who are already familiar with them on a basic level).

The three concerns I hear the most are:

"How do I deal with the bandwidth hit?"

"Is there a way to include information that isn't in the automated resource I use to populate my feed without touching any code?"

and

"Where can I find a cost-effective, simple way to display feeds on my site?"

Say Goodbye to Bandwidth Overages with FeedBurner

http://feedburner.com

If you're a publisher, chances are, you're familiar with the bandwidth increase that occurs every time your audience reads the latest update to your feed that for some webmasters lead to the possibility of exceeding monthly bandwidth limitations. There's an easy solution.

Burn your feed with FeedBurner. They're happy to take the burden off your server. (And yes, they say, FeedBurner is one word.)

Whether you've just created your news feed or you have been RSS-ing for years, you can create a free account at their site. Their service will also:

• translate your feed from Atom to RSS or vice versa,

• make a browser-friendly page that explains what web feeds are to the new user,

• allow you to splice any link into your feed using some of the more popular social bookmarking services.

FeedBurner also allows you to study your demographic by giving you statistics on how many request have been made for your feed contents, down to the item if you like.

Though I offer both the burned version of my feed and the original to my audience, they love the extra information my FeedBurned link provides them.

Social Bookmarking -Share More Info with Less Hassle

http://furl.net

http://bloglines.com

http://del.icio.us

Social bookmarking allows you to create a bookmark online, and share those bookmarks via RSS.

Some services even allow you to share your collection of links, as you can do with the service from del.icio.us . Furl.net, newly acquired by LookSmart, also adds the capability of saving an old version of a page you have visited with the bookmark feature. And at Bloglines, you can get ezine subscriptions via feed by subscribing through a special address they give you.

All three of these services can be coupled with FeedBurner to splice external links - or other internal links from your own site - into the "burned" version of your feed.

Display links on your site for free with RSS Digest

http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest/

You've heard about the value of displaying feeds from other sites (with permission of the publisher, of course) on your site. The theory is that the frequently updated headlines add freshness to your site, which results in more frequent visits from search engine spiders. This can lead to better rankings for the site carrying the headlines, and more backlinks for the feed publisher. Everybody wins.

For the most part, I've found this to be true, with a feed that frequently updates, at sites that have suitable content for both the visitor and the spiders to enjoy.

The trouble for many smaller web property owners is finding a cost-effective manner in which to employ this technique. Most free tools that do this with javascript are fine for site publishers who are using the headlines for content, but if you also want the search engine benefits, it doesn't help as many spiders don't register content that appears in this format.

RSS Digest will do this for you in HTML, as recently reported in Search Engine Journal.

It's not as sophisticated a tool as CARP or RSS Equalizer, but if you want to offer your feed to an audience and they don't mind using an IFRAME or pasting PHP code into their pages, this will do the job just fine.

If you're good at supplying tips, finding resources, or locating fresh information, after viewing some news feeds for yourself, you might find that you're ready to take the next step and publish one. If you're already a publisher, utilizing some of these free tools may help you build a better feed.

Either way, good luck!

Copyright 2004 Tinu AbayomiPaul

About The Author

Tinu saw a 75% increase in site traffic using only promotion of her web feeds, not taking into account increased exposure in search engines. She compiled her findings into a quick, ever-evolving guide this past July that you can download from http://www.freetraffictip.com, in addition to the semi-daily free traffic tips you'll find in her blog.

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Google News Updated : Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:06:59 GMT Machinists Go on Strike Against Boeing - New York Times BBC News Machinists Go on Strike Against Boeing New York Times - 38 minutes ago By MICHELINE MAYNARD The union that represents machinists struck the Boeing Company early Saturday, crippling its aircraft production in the United States and potentially delaying the development of an important new plane, the Dreamliner. Contract talks fail; machinists strike Boeing Co. The Associated Press Boeing machinists walk off the job as talks fail Reuters Bloomberg - Washington Post - Monsters and Critics.com - guardian.co.uk all 2,421 news articles Publ.Date : Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:28:42 GMT Seinfeld ads only part of Microsoft push - United Press International Scientific American Seinfeld ads only part of Microsoft push United Press International - 1 hour ago REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) says it's banking on a new US marketing campaign to fix the image problems of its Vista Windows operating system and connect with customers. Windows Vista: The OS About Nothing InformationWeek Microsoft Works to Perfect Windows Vista New York Times eFluxMedia - Macworld - CNET News - CRN all 476 news articles Publ.Date : Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:01:13 GMT 'True Blood': Undead On Arrival - Washington Post Boston Globe 'True Blood': Undead On Arrival Washington Post - 10 hours ago By Tom Shales You need a very good excuse to dig up the subject of vampires yet again, and filmmaker Alan Ball seems to have one. His "True Blood" is an audacious, outrageous, playfully grisly comic drama (or dramatic comedy) in which vampirism is ... Vampire tale deserves chance to suck us in Columbus Dispatch 'Blood' lacks that dramatic HBO bite San Diego Union Tribune E! Online - The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com - eFluxMedia - Hartford Courant all 185 news articles Publ.Date : Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:49:55 GMT Ready, set, go! Real race gets underway - Minneapolis Star Tribune Times Online Ready, set, go! Real race gets underway Minneapolis Star Tribune - 49 minutes ago By NEWS SERVICES, Washington Post McCain has turned this election into a soap opera about Sarah Palin and her family. Is this what we need to be talking about during these … read more critical times when people are losing their jobs, their homes, ... Palin intrigues Chinese public Financial Times Annette John-Hall: Pit bull of a hockey mom leading war on diversity Philadelphia Inquirer Seattle Post Intelligencer - Telegraph.co.uk - Bloomington Pantagraph - Wall Street Journal all 785 news articles Publ.Date : Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:17:06 GMT Electronic Arts spawns Spore -- which may be a benevolent god - Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Electronic Arts spawns Spore -- which may be a benevolent god Los Angeles Times - 7 hours ago Spore is one of the most-talked-about video games in years, and it was masterminded by Will Wright, the same game developer who was behind the blockbuster Sims franchise. Spore reviewed Total Gaming EA's 'Spore' Set For Earthwide Launch InformationWeek CRN - Macworld - Washington Post - BusinessWeek all 209 news articles Publ.Date : Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:01:47 GMT Federal Highway Fund About to Run Out of Money - New York Times ABC News Federal Highway Fund About to Run Out of Money New York Times - 18 hours ago By DAVID STOUT WASHINGTON - An important account in the federal Highway Trust Fund will run out of money this month, which could hamper completion of road and bridge construction projects across the country, Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said ... Highway Trust Fund Is Nearly Out of Gas Washington Post Bush reverses course, backs road fund bailout Houston Chronicle Seattle Times - Detroit Free Press - Arizona Republic - The Oregonian - OregonLive.com all 479 news articles Publ.Date : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:04:00 GMT SanDisk Shares Soar on Samsung Interest - BusinessWeek Siliconrepublic.com SanDisk Shares Soar on Samsung Interest BusinessWeek - 11 hours ago by Arik Hesseldahl Battered by a year of flagging prices for flash-memory chips and by an inability to get traction in sales of digital media devices, SanDisk (SNDK) may soon get scooped up by South Korean electronics giant Samsung Group. Samsung Weighs Buying SanDisk New York Times SanDisk Shares Surge as Samsung Considers Acquisition (Update3) Bloomberg Forbes - Financial Times - San Jose Mercury News - InternetNews.com all 385 news articles Publ.Date : Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:28:25 GMT Automatic Blogging Add RSS Feeds to My Website

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